Heaven and Hell

An absolutely gorgeous weekend steelhead fishing. Sunny and warm, this is February? Tom and I caught some fish. Battling another sinus infection sucks grandly. Oh well.

A Fan

O.K., so now I'm a Shaun White fan.

After living in the valley of the yupsters for ten years, it's become tough to hold back the gag reflex when it comes to the whole yo-yo skiing and snowboarding "scene." The self-absorbed, mutual admiration club became too much, and I had to get the hell out of there. But I gotta admit, watching Shaun White launch off the half-pipe and seeing his genuine joy of the competition made me want to dust off the old Nitro and head up to Baker. His interview with Bob Costas seemed to reveal a genuinely humble and enthusiastic young man. Way to go, dude!

Olympics, eh!

Even after all of these years, the Olympics still manage to be the best sporting event, period. When I lived in Idaho I thought Salt Lake was close. But these Vancouver games, even though I'm not going to see any of it like I was able to in Park city, really have me watching and rooting. It's strange to think those skating events in Richmond are only a half hour away from work.

It's great to see the events held on ski runs I've skied on, especially the cross country events. It's nice to see hockey played on an NHL rink. It was cool to hear the familiar chants of "LUUUU!" when Luango made a save. It was also fun to root for Pronger for a change. It will also be kinda fun to cheer against the Sedin twins. Hope it's USA vs Canada for gold, but those Russians look tough to beat. Hopefully the smaller rink will work against the Swedes, and they'll play soft like they do in the NHL.

Looking forward to more of it. No border line-ups. What were they thinking?

The Lemon Squeezed

The annual dessert climbing trip came and went way too fast again this year.
It started out with a trip to Chucky Cheese with Carew and Cutter and went dramatically uphill from there. After picking up Rodly at the Tucson airport, the three middle-aged adventurers first explored the local western steak house, downing Big Cowboy Cut steaks and prickly pear margaritas.

Many drinks and great meals around the campfire were briefly interrupted by rock climbs and hikes along the flanks of Mount Lemon, north of Tucson. We really lucked out with the weather, getting bright, sunny days and cool, clear nights. The campfire talks ran the usual wide range of topics from bathroom humor to educational philosophy. Oh, ya we managed to talk about The Book and make up new lyrics to Grateful Dead songs, as well.

We even managed to spend a little time back at the ranch with Dawni, Cutter, and Shamus. As icing to the cake, I was able to spend some time with Mick and the gang on both ends of the trip. I'm lucky to have such fantastic friends.

Swingin' with Hannah

Got a rare invitation, recently, to fish a day on the Skagit River with Hannah from Flyfishergirl.com. We didn't catch any fish, but it was good day on the river. Hannah definitely knows her stuff and was fun to fish with. She even spent a little time helping me to improve my two-handed casting skills.

Hannah and her mom own and operate a flyfishing lodge in northern B.C. She patiently answered all the questions I had about living and fishing in the B.C. wilderness.
The gal is definitely as independent as they come. It was refreshing to spend some time with Hannah and her friend Mia, knowing that there are cool women out there who love time outdoors even when the weather isn't perfect.

Here Comes the Sun!

Three more days 'til the annual desert expedition. Can't wait.

Our Parks

I've been up late grading math notebooks and watching a show on our national parks. It occurred to me, after hanging around Canadians for three years and listening to them bash on the U.S. It bugged me, and I've wondered why it bugged me so much.

We are the country that elected sleazebags like Reagan and the Bushes. No they weren't the sexual deviants that Billy Bob is, but they were the ultimate corperate whores. I'm not proud of a nation that declares war at the drop of a hat, just to make profits for defense contractors and oil companies. I'm not proud of a country full of people that points fingers and lifts their noses at others just to feel important and superior. I'm not proud of a country full of people who use religion as a smokescreen to hide the most vile and hideous acts upon other people.

What I'm most proud of is our national parks and our other public lands. I'm proud of what we do to help out those who need help. I'm proud of Lincoln and Roosevelt and Sitting Bull and King. For all of our faults, the fact that we have preserved our most sacred ground for our future generations and have worked to try to achieve social equality for these future generations is what makes me proud to be an American.

So to all of you who want to call us all bad money-mongering aggressive egotists - bite me! And to all of you bastards who want to wrap yourself in the red, white, and blue to push your religions and to make money from killing other people around the world, and who want to deny basic health care to all the people of our country - you can kiss my ass! Same with all of you cold-hearted freaks who think that educating our kids is all about test scores and treating them like dogs!

Steelhead fishing, again?

Oh, it's so nice not to hear that kind of talk again. John Geirach said best when he wrote "Over the years, ex wives and city folks with no poetry in their souls have largely dropped out of my life so now there is no more eye-rolling to deal with, it's just fishing season, the most natural thing in the world."

So maybe the quote isn't word for word, but it's close enough. Learned so much from Jim Kerr last weekend that I paid him to take me fishing Saturday. Managed to land three nice bucks and spent some more time learning to cast the two-hander. Got to fish with Tomass and Greg, the mustacioed one on Sunday. Not as many steelhead landed, but it sure turned out to be a beautiful day. Less than two weeks to the desert with Carewski and The Rod.